Wednesday, August 27, 2008

After hearing so many great speeches in the last two nights, it really makes me wonder how big of a contrast the RNC will be next week. Thanks to John McCain and his minions we've been getting previews with gems like his support of the song "Gasolina" which is about, well, um, just have a look for yourself. He probably doesn't know much Puerto Rican slang, so let's not fault him too much on that. Though when the issue is about international diplomacy and working with our allies around the world, when he lambasts Obama for the speech in Berlin about working together, that is as absurd as voting against Mother's Day.

My opponent had the chance to express such confidence in America, when he delivered a much anticipated address in Berlin. He was the picture of confidence, in some ways. But confidence in oneself and confidence in one's country are not the same. And in that speech, Senator Obama left an important point unclear. He suggested that the end of the Cold War proved that there was, "no challenge too great for a world that stands as one." Now I missed a few years of the Cold War, as the guest of one of our adversaries, but as I recall the world was deeply divided during the Cold War -- between the side of freedom and the side of tyranny. The Cold War ended not because the world stood "as one," but because the great democracies came together, bound together by sustained and decisive American leadership.

Never one to pass up an opportunity to sport his P.O.W. status, McCain uses it as an excuse to completely miss the point of Obama's speech and the broad appeal for our country to work with others in order to fight the battles in the world that we cannot win alone (which Bush has proven so well for all of us). He may have wanted to sound tough to his militaristic and overly hubristic buddies in the warmonger section of the GOP, but really, that speech just makes him sound like a go-it-alone schmuck intent on ruining our alliances around the world (oh now who does that sound like? Hmmm).

McCain can pontificate on what type of 'confidence' Obama showed in Berlin all he wants. Yet the world certainly saw that Obama is determined to reshape America's image as the bully into one that is an international team player intent on helping fight terrorism with all of our allies, not just by provoking more terrorism by going it alone.